Composition and method of defoaming bubble baths

ABSTRACT

A BATH COMPOSITION COMPRISING A HIGH-FOAMING DETERGENT AND AN ENCAPSULATED COMBINATION OF AN EMOLLIENT, A FATTY POLYOXYETHYLENE MATERIAL HAVING A HYDROPHILICLIPOPHILIC BALANCE (HLB) OF 10-12 AND A METHYLPOLYSILOXANE DEFOAMING AGENT IS DISCLOSED. IN USE, THE DETERGENT PROVIDES COPIOUS FOAM AND, AFTER A DELAY IN TIME, THE ENCAPSULATED MATERIALS ARE RELEASED TO SIMULTANEOUSLY BREAK THE FOAM PRODUCED BY THE DETERGENT AND PROVIDE AN EMOLLIENT FOR THE SKIN OF THE USER.

United States Patent 3,705,102 COMPOSITION AND METHOD OF DEFOAMINGBUBBLE BATHS Rolf Mast, Park Forest, 11]., assignor to Armour-Dial,

' Inc., Chicago, Ill. No Drawing. Filed Jan. 18, 1971, Ser. No. 107,556

Int. Cl. Clld 1/12 U.S. Cl. 252--89 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREA bath composition comprising a high-foaming detergent and anencapsulated combination of an emollient, a fatty polyoxyethylenematerial having a hydrophiliclipohilic balance (HLB) of 10-12 and 'amethylpolysiloxane defoaming agent is disclosed. In use, the detergentprovides copious foam and, after a delay in time, the encapsulatedmaterials are released to simultaneously break the foam produced by thedetergent and provide an emollient for the skin of the user.

Bubble bath preparations have been popular for many years; and it isapparent that their popularity has been increasing. Such preparationsgenerally consist of a highly scented foaming detergent, either ingranular or liquid form. One of the primary desirable productcharacteristics of a bubble bath preparation is that a stable copiousfoam be readily produced when relatively small amounts of the productare added to the bath. This characteristic is essential for enhancingthe appeal of the product. The foam produced by a bubble bath isgenerally stable within rather wide limits of temperature, in hard aswell as soft Water, and in the presence of soil. However, such stablecopious foam bubble bath preparations have overlooked the problem ofdispersing or collapsing the foam at the end of the bath. It issometimes necessary at the end of the bath period, particularly if onewants to augment the bubble bath with the use of a bath oil, to drain,rinse and refill the bath tub.

The use of emollient bath oils has also been increasing but the use ofsuch oils requires their separate addition to the bath water. Thus asecond step is added to the bathing process. Further if an oil is addedto a bath containing copious detergent foam, the oil may becomeentrained in the foam, tending to negate its emollient effects on theskin as well as tending to deposit a soapy or detergent film upon theskin, and hindering the uniform and rapid dispersing of the foam andforming of a uniform continuous bath oil layer on the bath water.

Therefore it is an important object of this invention to provide a bathpreparation which will initially provide a copious foam and after adelay in time will simultaneously collapse the foam and cause therelease of an emollient oil without the need for draining and refillingthe bath.

It is also an object and advantage of this invention to provide a methodfor providing a highly copious foam bath followed by an instant foambreak and application of an emollient bath oil.

Another object is to provide a composition that is a combined bubblebath and bath oil product.

A further object and advantage of this invention is to provide a bathcomposition comprising a high foaming detergent and a water solublecapsule containing an emollient, a methylpolysiloxane defoaming agentand a polyoxyethylene derivative of a fatty material having an HLB ofabout 10 to about 12.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear as thespecification proceeds.

We have now discovered that a bath composition may ice be formulatedcontaining a high-foaming anionic detergent and an encapsulatedcombination of an emollient, a polyoxyethylene derivative of a fattyacid, a fatty ester or a fatty alcohol, the polyoxyethylene derivativehaving an HLB of about 10 to 12, and a polysiloxane defoaming agent. Inuse the detergent provides the copious foam of a bubble bath and, aftera time delay, the encapsulated materials are released to simultaneouslybreak the foam of the bubble bath and provide the emollient oil for theskin of the user. Thus it is now possible to combine a bubble bath and abath oil into one product.

In a highly preferred specific embodiment, a gelatin capsule is filledwith a combination comprising about 40% by weight of a heavy emollientoil, about 30% of polyethylene glycol 300 dilaurate having an HLB of 11and about 10% by weight of methylpoylsiloxane defoaming agent, such as adimethylpolysiloxane fluid thickened with silica aerogel. If desired, upto about 20'% by weight of the capsule ingredients may be a perfume toscent the product. The capsule is then packaged in combination with ananionic detergent.

The capsule material may be any of the materials which are soluble, andpreferably slowly soluble, in water such as gelatin, poly-vinyl alcohol,polyvinyl acetate, carboxymethylcellulose and hydroxyethylcellulose.Different times for release of the encapsulated materials may beachieved by the use of encapsulating materials having differentthickness or varying the bloom of the gelatin. It is preferred that thecapsule have a wall thickness of about 0.1-1 mm. and preferably 0.2-0.7mm. and that the capsule have a volume of about 5 cc. when the capsuleis made of gelatin.

The emollient ingredient may be any of those commonly employed for thepurpose, such as mink oil. The emollient material may also be a mineraloil, isopropylmyristate, liquid lanolin esters, dipropylene glycol orpolypropylene oxide materials and the like as are well known. It isparticularly preferred that the oil be heavy enough to cause the capsuleto sink in the bath water, such as an oleyl ether phosphate based on aten mole ethylene oxide ether derived from oleyl alcohol.

The polyoxyethylene derivative should have a hydrophilic-lipophilicbalance (HLB) of about 10 to about 12. and is preferably apolyoxyethylene derivative of a fatty acid, a fatty ester or a fattyalcohol. Fatty is used in the generic sense of long chain aliphatichydrocarbon radicals containing from 8 to 22 carbon atoms whetherderived from natural or synthetic sources. Exemplary of the abovederivatives are polyoxyethylene derivatives of fatty acids such aspolyoxyethylene (15 moles) lauric acid (having an HLB of 10.6),polyoxyethylene (10 moles) oleic acid (HLB of 12) and polyoxyethylene(10 moles) tall oil acid having low rosin acid content (HLB of 11.8);polyoxyethylene derivatives of fatty esters such as polyethylene glycol(molecular weight 300) dilaurate (HLB 11), polyethylene glycol 600distearate (HLB 10.6), polyethylene glycol 400 mono-oleate (HLB 11.4),and polyethylene glycol 400 mono-stearate (HLB 11.6); andpolyoxyethylene derivatives of fatty alcohols such as polyoxyethyleneisostearyl alcohol having polyoxyethylene derivatives having an HLB ofabout 11, such as polyethylene glycol 300 dilaurate and polyoxyethyleneisostearyl alcohol, are particularly preferred.

The defoaming agent is any suitable polysiloxane such as those disclosedin U.S. Pats. 2,595,928; 2,632,736 and 2,894,913. A preferred agent is adimethylpolysiloxane fluid thickened with about 5% silica areogel, suchas that available from Dow Corning, Midland, Mich., under the trademarkAntifoam A.

The detergent ingredient may be any high-sudsing or high-foamingdetergent; and for this reason the anionic synthetic detergents arepreferred. Suitable anionic synthetic detergents can be described asthose detergents having pronounced cleansing power and including intheir molecular structure an alkyl radical containing from 6 to 18carbon atoms and a sulfonic acid or sulfuric acid ester radical. Organicbase, ammonium, amine, or alkali metal salts of such anionic detergentscan be used. The main types of detergents falling within this class arethe alkylaryl sulfonates such as sodium or potassium dodecyl benzenesulfonate, and sodium or potassium octyl naphthalene sulfonate; thealkyl sulfates such as the sodium or potassium salts of dodecyl, lauryl,hexadecyl, myristyl and octadecyl sulfates and ether sulfates; thesulfonated fatty acid amides such as sodium or potassium salts of theoleic acid amide of methyltaurine; and the sulfonated mono-glyceridessuch as the mono-coconut oil fatty acid ester of1,2-hydroxypropane-3-s0dium sulfonate. The amount of foam will varyamong the specific detergents, and the higher foaming ones are preferredsuch as the alkyl sulfates. The detergent can be used in any suitableform but aqueous solutions are not preferred unless the capsule shell isnot water-soluble. The detergent may be in the form of a powder, flakes,anhydrous solution or slurry. A solution of triethanolamine lauryliulfate in a propylene glycol is preferred, as is a powdered orm.

In a preferred form of packaging, the suitable detergent is placed in aplastic or foil pouch, the capsule containing the emollient, thepolyoxyethylene derivative and defoamer is added to the pouch, and thepouch is sealed into a packet. Another form of package is to place thedetergent and the above capsule into a larger capsule which largercapsule may or may not be water-soluble. In this latter form ofpackaging, the large capsule is added to the water to dissolve or isbroken up by the user and the contents dumped into the bath water,whereupon the small capsule slowly dissolves to provide a time releaseof the emollient, polyoxyethylene derivative.

The following table lists the various components of the preferred bathcomposition, as to the general range in percent of each component in theend product, an optimum range and also a specific preferred formulation.

TABLE A Amount, Component General optimum Specific (General/specie):Anionic detergent triethanolamlne lauryl sulfate dlssolved in propyleneglycol (60% ac- Sheets of gelatin were made and passed through a capsulemaking machine according to usual procedures to result in a shell wallof about 0.2-0.7 millimeter thickness and inside volume of five cubiccentimeters. The capsules were filled with the specific components andweights set forth in Table A. In order to get the capsule completelyfilled, the ingredients were inserted into the closed capsule using ahypodermic syringe and the needle holes sealed with glue. The capsuleand the specific anionic detergent solution set forth in Table A wereadded to film pouches and the pouches were sealed. In use, the pouch wastorn open and the contents dumped into the bath water. Copious sudsimmediately resulted, while the gelatin capsule sank to the bottom ofthe tubs.

After an elapsed time of about 10-12 minutes the encapsulatedingredients were released and the foam was immediately dissipated toresult in a foamless surface layer of emollient oil that imparted apleasing emolliency to the skin of the user and gave off a pleasingperfume scent.

EXAMPLE II A number of polyoxyethylene derivatives of fatty acids,alcohols and esters were substituted for the polyethylene glycol 300diluarate in the specific formulation of the table. Those derivativeshaving an HLB above or below about 10 to about 12 were slow in breakingthe foam and dispersing the emollient oil, while those having an HLB inthe above range rapidly broke the foam and dispensed the emollient oil.When either the polysiloxane or the polyoxyethylene derivatives havingan HLB in the range of 10'12 were left out of the formulation, a slowfoam break and oil dispersion resulted, but when they were combined, arapid and thorough defoaming and oil dispersion occurred.

What is claimed is:

1. A bath composition consisting essentially of a high sudsing anionicsynthetic detergent in combination with a water soluble capsule, saidcapsule containing (1) 35- 45% by weight of an emollient suitable forbath use; (2) 815 by weight of a polysiloxane defoaming agent; (3)20-40% by weight of a material selected from the group consisting of apolyoxyethylene derivative of a fatty acid, a polyoxyethylene derivativeof a fatty ester and a polyoxyethylene derivative of a fatty alcoholwherein said fatty portion of said derivative consists of long chainaliphatic hydrocarbon radicals containing 8 to 22 carbon atoms, saidderivative having a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of about 10 to about12; said capsule being formed from a material selected from the groupconsisting of gelatin, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetate,carboxymethylcellulose and hydroxyethylcellulose.

2. The composition of claim 1 wherein said polysiloxane is adimethylpolysiloxane containing about 5% by Weight of silica aerogel.

3. The composition of claim 1 wherein said dimethylpolysiloxane ispresent in an amount of about 10 percent by weight based on the weightof the encapsulated materials.

4. The composition of claim 1 wherein the polyoxyethylene derivative hasa hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of about 11.

5. The composition of claim 1 wherein the polyoxyethylene derivative ispolyoxyethylene isostearyl alcohol having a hydrophilic-lipophilicbalance of about 11.

6. The composition of claim 1 wherein the polyoxyethylene derivative ispolyethylene glycol 300 diluarate having a hydrophilic-lipophilicbalance of about 11.

7. The composition of claim 1 wherein the polyoxyethylene derivative ispresent in an amount of about 30% byyl eight based on the weight of theencapsulated materra s.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,516,937 6/1970 Story et a1.252316 3,520,971 7/ 1970 Benford 252522 3,314,857 4/1967 Fainer 2523 162,894,913 7/ 1959 Sullivan et al. 252321 2,826,551 3/1958 Geen 252892,954,325 9/1960 Baumann 252522 3,011,950 12/ 196-1 Nehaffey 252903,528,925 9/1970 Chabuis 25290 LEON D. ROSDOL, Primary Examiner W. E.SOH ULZ, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 25 23 16; 424-37

